This science news story highlights a new initiative by the Hubble Space Telescope to image distant galaxies. The program uses gravitational lenses to image galaxies that are otherwise too distant and faint for the telescope to image. The story...(View More) includes information describing how gravitational lenses are similar to optical lenses. The article also includes a description of parallel fields - a set of observations done in tandem with the gravitational lens observations that will result in six additional HUDF-type observations of the sky. Star Witness News is a series of articles, written for students, that are inspired by Hubble Space Telescope press releases. Supplemental education materials include vocabulary, discussion questions and answers, and identifies relevant Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.(View Less)

These guides showcase education and public outreach resources from across more than 20 NASA astrophysics missions and programs. The twelve guides - one for each month - contain a science topic, an interpretive story, a sky object to view with...(View More) finding charts, hands-on activities, and connections to NASA science. The guides are modular, so that educators can use the portions that are the most useful for their audiences/events. Following is the theme for each month: January - Betelgeuse, February - Orion Nebula, March - Pleiades, April - Pollux; May - Hubble Deep Field, June - Hercules Cluster, July - Ring Nebula & Veil Nebula, August - The Search for Habitable Worlds, September - Milky Way Galaxy, October - Upsilon Andromedae, November - Andromeda Galaxy, and December - Crab Nebula.(View Less)

This science news story highlights Hubble's infrared image of the Horsehead Nebula. Students will discover why astronomers are interested in this nebula and how they study the nebula using infrared light. Star Witness News is a series of articles,...(View More) written for students, that are inspired by Hubble Space Telescope press releases. Supplemental education materials include vocabulary, discussion questions and answers, and identifies relevant English language arts standards.(View Less)

This science news story explains the impact of the Hubble Space Telescope over the past two decades. The article describes the telescope, its many servicing missions, the public’s favorite images, the top science findings, and the man for whom the...(View More) telescope is named. Star Witness News is a series of articles, written for students, that are inspired by Hubble Space Telescope press releases. Supplemental education materials include background information, vocabulary, and discussion questions and answers.(View Less)

In this lesson, students explore the cosmic microwave background to understand why it permeates the universe and why it peaks as microwave radiation. Students should be able to explain that the origin of the background radiation is the uniform...(View More) thermal radiation of the big bang and that the radiation produced was evenly distributed around the small early universe, causing it to permeate today's universe. This activity is part of the Cosmic Times teachers guide and is intended to be used in conjunction with the 1965 Cosmic Times Poster.(View Less)

This lesson plan will provide a concrete way for students to understand the concept of distance in space equals distance in time. This is done using information gathered from a timeline activity in Lesson 1: Earth, the Universe, and Culture....(View More) Students experiment with how distances are measured in space and create timelines to demonstrate the concept distance in space equals distance in time. This lesson is part of the "Swift: Eyes Through Time" collection that is available on the Teacher's Domain website.(View Less)

This modular activity traces the history of telescope development and highlights the interplay between technological and scientific advances. Milestones in telescope development are highlighted in the ten sections called "eras," with specific...(View More) examples included in the associated "telescope pages." The human component is highlighted in the biography pages that provide a glimpse of the inventors and astronomers behind the telescopes. The science of light and telescopes is presented in the section called "Get to the root of it" that can be used for review, learning the basics, or remediation. Detailed teacher pages, identified as Teaching Tips on the title page of the activity, provide science background information, lesson plan ideas, related resources, and alignment with national education standards.(View Less)

This modular activity introduces five major pre-requisite ideas: the electromagnetic spectrum, three ways to alter the path of light, refraction by lenses vs. reflection by mirrors, what telescopes do, and what makes a good telescope. Students can...(View More) work through the activity independently or in groups. After completing this activity students will be able to identify basic properties of light from the electromagnetic spectrum to refraction and reflection. This modular activity is a section of the "Get To The Root of It" included in the online activity "Telescopes From The Ground Up." Detailed teacher pages, identified as Teaching Tips on the title page of the activity, provide science background information, lesson plan ideas, related resources, and alignment with national education standards.(View Less)

This science news story explains how an area in the constellation, Orion, called the Orion Nebula is a stellar nursery, where more than 3,000 stars are being born. Students read about why astronomers are interested in this region of space and how...(View More) they go about studying the nebula. Star Witness News is a series of articles, written for students, that are inspired by Hubble Space Telescope press releases. Supplemental education materials include background information, vocabulary, and discussion questions and answers.(View Less)

In this activity, students work in groups to create a presentation that illustrates the meaning of the statement "To make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe." Students pick an element that can be found in apple pie and...(View More) trace its evolutionary history back to the birth of the universe itself. They also share their vision of the environment in which that element may find itself 5 or so billion years from now after the Earth is long gone. Presentations are intended to demonstrate student understanding of the origins and life cycle of matter, so this activity is appropriate as a conclusion to a unit. This activity is part of the "What is Your Cosmic Connection to the Elements" information and activity booklet. The booklet includes teacher notes, grading guide and student handouts.(View Less)